Brittany Maynard, a recently married 29-year-old woman, committed suicide. Her death, however, cannot be classified as suicide. Brittany had fatal brain cancer (grade four astrocytoma or glioblastoma), which condemned her to death and gave her only six months to live (Duke, 2014).
Brittany was going to endure a time of terrible seizures and agony, given her health situation. Her condition also inclined her to forgetting what she once learned. Her physicians told her in April 2014 that she only had a few weeks left to walk and that she would soon be bedridden. Maynard was an adventurous woman and did not heed the doctor's warnings. In her quest for adventures, she kept strong and continued to complete 10-mile hikes and traveled with her loved ones in into her last weeks in October 2014. During these excursions, Brittany moved to Oregon, the only state where physician assisted suicide or "Death with Dignity" was legal. Brittany also decided that 1st of November would be the day for her to die (Duke, 2014).
Maynard was a strong and confident woman and was certain of her self when alive. She knew what she wanted and because of her firm stand she pursued Death with Dignity as an option making her to die in dignity. Maynard's firm stand on life and medical option brought led to the rise of medical concerns in various states across the country. Various states passed the Death with Dignity law to enable physicians help the terminally ill patients with life-ending drugs. Some of the states that passed this law include Oregon, Vermont and Washington (Duke, 2014).
Impact of "Death with Dignity" on the Community
The definition of "Dignity" has often been questioned when it comes to assisted suicides. In Brittany Maynard's mind, dying with dignity implied taking control of her medical situation and dying in the terms that were best appealing in relation to her medical condition. According to numerous debates sparked by the death with dignity issue, most people argue that having control over ones own death does not guarantee natural death in as much as it is compassionate. Brittney made this choice because she wanted to experience her life full of youthfulness, beauty, love and vigor and not pain, gradual wastage of mind and body and ultimate suffering. However, according to the physicians, dignity has a different definition. To them it means embracing the fact that the value of life is not estimated in youthfulness, beauty and independence or the things that the society values the most. The physicians claim that life itself is a dignity even if it becomes dependent and deteriorating (Duke, 2014).
Compared to people deciding whether or not to have an abortion, patients should also be mandated with the right to choose the course they want to take as afar as death is concerned. They should be allowed to die in their own terms. The choice made by Maynard illuminated the issues that bare people from choosing a controlled and peaceful way of ending their lives. However, it is also important to consider the social implication of making death with dignity a legal law across various states.
Many doctors have argued against the act of legalizing assisted suicide. Putting the idea of death with dignity into action might sway some patient into negative thinking and depression. The physicians insists that patients who chose to end their lives this way might end up ingesting lethal drugs that might cut their life short by months or years unnecessarily. Following the request by Brittney, patients in Oregon have to be mentally assessed for emotional competence and determine whether or not they are actually suffering form terminal illness before any course of action can be taken on them. Such patients also has to undergo psychiatric evaluations to ascertain that they are not depressed and a confirmation that they are not incapacitated in making such a decision. Most physicians have criticized the death with dignity issue, arguing that injecting patients with drugs that aids their death makes them to end their lives far too soon and far too easily. Such actions creates misconstrued beliefs about life and death by insinuating that there is value in life only when a person dies you and full of youth (Keegan & Watson Caring Science Institute, 2012).
Ethical Issues of the Case
Brittany Maynard's physician assisted suicide received lots of ethics connotations in the medical and religious context. The definition of assisted suicide has been established as a method an individual intentionally killing him or herself with the help of someone who gives them the knowledge or means of doing such an act. Some of the terminally ill patients who are experiencing and intolerable pain or intractably poor quality of life prefer to end their life rather than continue living in pain until their body can bear the pain no more. Some states have the mandate to grant this right to such patients. It is an ethical consideration that is determined by a particular state that the patient is residing in. Suicide is considered a legal act that has been theoretically granted to everyone but it the mandate of the state to approve the act. However, a terminally ill person in a hospital setup with no hopes of recovery may not be able to exercise this act either due to physical or mental limitations. This makes them in turn to be discriminated against the act of suicide because of their disability (Keegan & Watson Caring Science Institute, 2012).
Various faith groups within the Jewish, Muslim and Christian religions believe that life is a gift that was freely given by God. They believe that it is only god who has the right to take away life of a person and not they themselves. According to the religious groups, suicide in any form be it physician assisted suicide is considered a rejection of God's gift and his loving plan. These religious bodies believe that individuals are stewards of their own lives but taking their lives through suicide must not be an option. Religion could be reluctant to choose physician assisted suicide for them. However, substantial adults in the religious realm and those who are liberal believes that euthanasia can be a morally desirable option in some special r critical cases. There are also many atheists, secularist and agnostics who actively disagree with the opinions of the religious leaders and their arguments. Most of these non-religious members would strongly advocate for suicide incase they developed terminal illness and whenever their lives becomes miserably unbearable (Smith, 2016).
Many faith based groups holds to the belief that human suffering can be positive value pursued by terminally ill persons. For these faith groups, surfing can be viewed as a divinely appointed opportunity for people learn the act of purification. A Roman Catholic document stated that some Christians would prefer to moderate how they used painkillers so that that the can accept the divine aspect of suffering in order for them to conscientiously associate with the crusification of Christ. Some considers these suggestions Christians but justify the denial of physician-assisted suicide on those individuals who do not share such beliefs.
Many as something that can be controlled to tolerable levels if it can be properly managed often see the pain experience by terminally ill persons. Many people believe that there is no need for physician-assisted suicide and some handle this consideration by accessing adequate pain management. Some of the physicians withholds levels of pain killers considering the fact that some of their terminally patients might be addicted to the drugs (Smith, 2016).
Making physician assisted suicide pressurizes some individuals to accept assistance to die close to their family members. This pressure can often take subtle in their occurrence. This argument is important as it favors strict controls confirming that a patient is not making decisions under the influence of others. Some people believe that the forced or externally influenced decisions on physician assisted suicide should be avoided since it is not necessary and might lead to early death in as much an individual could have lived longer. Some patients wish that they died since they are overwhelmed by clinical depression. This argument also favors strict controls ascertaining that the patient asking for assistance to die of sound mind (DeCesare, 2015).
Ethics Committee's Perspective on Brittany Maynard's Case
According to the ethics committee, Brittany did nothing illegal after taking an overdose of barbiturates that were prescribed by her physician in Oregon. Oregon had permitted a law that allowed terminally ill patients to request for prescription of lethal drugs capable of taking theory lives. Unethical arguments comes in when the committee considers that life comes form God and it is only him wit the right of taking it away. Following the religious path, the ethical committee deemed Brittany's case as unethical because it led to the abuse of the terminally ill patient especially those than are poor or dialed. The committee considers that there are human ways of ending life through the consideration of better choices such as dying in the form of palliative care or hospice and that the doctors do not have a right to kill a patent by prescribing them suicidal drugs. However, the aforementioned arguments are not persuasive and in that case therefore, Brittany did not do anything immoral when she decided to take her own life b taking the lethal hazardous dose of pills prescribed by her doctor (Duke, 2014).
The argument that it is only god that can decide when someone will die is considered to be consistent with the fact that God created us and he did so out of free choice. When one seeks medical care, they do so with the intention of prolonging their lives. Despite their efforts in prolonging their lives, it is only God who can determine whether or not their endeavors will bear fruit. It should therefore be unnecessary to condemn physician assisted suicide as it is a personal option and the opinions patients has to be considered in as long as they make the decisions in sound mind (Ball, 2017).
References
Ball, H. (2017). The right to die: A reference handbook.
DeCesare, M. (2015). Death on demand: Jack Kevorkian and the right-to-die movement.
Duke, R. B. (December 19, 2014). Death with Dignity: the Brittany Maynard Story. Duke Research Blog, 2014-12.
Keegan, L., Drick, C. A., & Watson Caring Science Institute. (2012). End of life: Nursing solutions for death with dignity. New York [N.Y.: Springer.
Smith, W. J. (2016). Cultuåre of Death. New York, NY, UNITED STATES: Encounter Books.
